# Severe teacher shortage situation in America right now

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/severe-teacher-shortage-situation-in-america-right-now/969091>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [August 4, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/severe-teacher-shortage-situation-in-america-right-now/969091 "2022-08-04T14:57:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 52

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/severe-teacher-shortage-situation-in-america-right-now/969091/52 "2022-08-05T01:31:40Z")

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> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> I saw a poll of teachers a while ago (which I currently can’t find again…) which stated the top issues causing them to want to leave were, in order:
> 
> - Pandemic related issues/burnout
> - Classroom behaviour of students
> - Student absenteeism
> - Politics in schools (from both sides - Woke teachers feeling attacked, non-woke not liking being forced to teach woke politics and feeling marginalized)
> - General lack of respect from admin, parents, students
> - Pay/Benefits

Hmmm. Could it have been [this January 2022 National Education Association members survey?](https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/NEA%20Member%20COVID-19%20Survey%20Summary.pdf) It has a list of “Issues facing educators” which is somewhat similar to yours, ranked as follows from higher to lower percentage of respondents considering the issue to be either “somewhat serious” or “very serious”, which I copy here from page 2 of the linked report:

> [@](#):
>
> - General stress from the coronavirus pandemic
> - Feeling burned out
> - Student absences due to COVID-19
> - Unfilled job openings leading to more work for remaining staff
> - Pay is too low
> - Student behavioral issues
> - Lack of respect from parents/the public
> - Not enough planning or unstructured time

It looks like the NEA survey and the poll you describe must be two different things (for one thing, the NEA report makes no mention of “politics” or “wokeness”). But the NEA survey resembles your list more than any similar survey I can find online (e.g., more than the [2021 RAND State of the Teacher Survey](https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-1.html) and more than the [November 2020 Horace Mann Educator Health and Well-Being Study](https://www.horacemann.com/~/media/documents/supplemental/The%20Hidden%20Impact%20of%20COVID-19%20on%20Educators.pdf)).

But Sam, if you can’t currently find the poll you saw, then how do you know what the individual issues and ordering were, specifically enough to list them in your post? (If you were just able to reproduce that information from memory then massive respect, I have to keep re-looking up old threads and posts and cites to link to them because I can never remember exactly what a source said.)

[ETA: many people are saying this!]

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